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Friday, December 31, 2010

Here are a few of my top picks for the year.With so many to choose from it was difficult narrowing it down to only a few. Since today is the last day of 2010, I want to thank you for contributing and being a part of this blog. I've had a great year interacting and learning from you. May your New Year be great! Have a safe and fun night!

xoxo,

Kathy

Party Hearty! It was actually a tie between this one and GEMs. Both are great glitters but I liked this picture better (ha ha)Charla. Amazing teal-green. Excuse my VNL, this was before I knew what VNL was ;)Okay, okay. This is not a polish but I just had to sneak it in here. Yall know I love foils! Here's one of my favorites :)

Space Cadet. Need I say more :)

Prancer. One of my best finds for $1.99. WnW please make more of these great glitters!

Elle's Spell. My answer to Bad Fairy. Its everything I wanted Bad Fairy to be. Not that I expected it to be a flakie, but I wanted it to make my nails glow a golden red, like they were on fire.

See what I mean?

You can also layer it over other colors for more amazing flaki-ness.

Laser. One of the most amazing blues. See it glows!

Hidden Treasures. The polish that actually was hidden for many, unfortunately. It flashes pink over Laser. Can you say drop dead gorgeous!

Revvvolution. I like to call this one corporate chic. It reminds me of wool trousers I'd wear to work. Very professional with but with an edge.

Holographic. Last but definitely not least. One of the most beautiful polishes I own. (I usually don't do the dainty hand pose because my hands aren't dainty, but this one turned out okay, lol.)

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Last week when I ventured into Walgreens and they had brochures from Sally Hansen advertising their new minx-like nails stickers (polish strips). Well I went back today and they were in stock. Because I own konad, I was a little biased and not as thrilled with the selection. I was more impressed with the strips that had complex designs as opposed to the plain polished ones. There were several single colors to choose from, including two glitters (pink and gold if I remember correctly).

I tried to select designs that I couldn't do myself so I picked up Skinny Jeans (blue jean design) and Fly With Me (butterflies). I always wanted to do a blue jean manicure but I could never get the colors quite right. They also had a really cute lace design, but I figured I could do my own with Konad or real lace :)

The largest polish strip measures about 1.25 inches long and 3/4 inches wide. You may be able to stretch a second application if your nails are very short. I usually have trouble finding thumbs that fit but these were perfect. The application was easy but the stickers are thinner than they appear. I actually tore two of them while trying to stretch them onto my nails (I got that idea from the instructions). They suggest buffing your nails prior to applying but I skipped that step. I did apply a basecoat & topcoat out of habit, lined my tips with dark blue polish and sealed with Poshe topcoat. None of these steps are recommended. The strips are supposed to be hassle free and last up to 10 days.

Salon Effects retails for $9.99 and 16 come in the box (2, 8 packs). It may be a good value if you can get at least 7 days of wear or stretch 2 manis out of the 16 strips. Overall, they're cute but expensive for a 1 time application. They're great for a quick mani if you're running short on time, have a special event to attend or don't like to do nail art. But, if you're a frequent polish changer a better option may be full nail water decals. You can get them for around $5 and have less guilt when you take them off.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Here's a closer look at Purple Sprinkles, from the Hello Kitty for Sephora Liquid Nail Art Collection. It has small and medium teal and pink glitter in a purple base. My bottle is really thick and could use a little thinner for more even coverage. The bottle is not labeled but I would guess it holds about 10mL compared to the 14-15mL of regular sized polishes.

Sprinkles was painted over bare nails and silver tips. Go here to see it over other colors. The bottom picture is more true to life. Click for a full size view.

Hello Kitty polishes will be available at Sephora in mid-January for $10 a bottle.

The bottles are adorable and made of heavy glass. I couldn't find the weight marked on the bottle, but I guess around 10mL? Unfortunately I was disappointed in Pink Sprinkles but Purple Sprinkles is okay because it's unique to my stash. I like it best over white, pink and black. It's very thick and dries quickly. Blueberry went on with one thick coat compared to Lapis of Luxury which required three coats to become opaque.

Monday, December 20, 2010

As promised, here is the lovely I found yesterday. The mall wasn't very crowded, but I got there 20 minutes after they opened. First I ventured into Hot Topic and picked up what I heard was similar to Bad Romance. This was my first time in their store and they had a pretty decent polish collection. I also went to Anthropoligie for the first time. I was trying to figure out their target audience and asked the SA, but the question threw her off guard. They had a wide range of $$$ products and many of them were in a neutral palette, so I figured they were pretty conservative.

Anyhow, here is the pretty I found, an unnamed black jelly with purple glitter. It came in a 2-pack with a purple creme.

All of the pictures are clickable.

(3 coats, no top coat)

(4 coats no topcoat)

(4 coats, no top coat)

I was pleasantly surprised with this little polish. As you can see, it's super shiny and gorgeous! I'm not sure if my mind was playing tricks on me, but it smelled like candy. The box is labeled as a mini set and it retails for $4.99. A great buy if you have been lemming Bad Romance or if you like great glitters. I don't own a bottle of BR, but it looks very similar to the pictures I have seen.

I also got a Matteo Olivieriff, a StrangeBeautiful polish from Anthropologie. They're on sale for $3.99 if you're willing to brave the mall. Have a great Monday!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Cover me, I'm going in! Ooooo weee, I haven't been to the mall since June of this year. I'm much more of an online shopping type of girl, but when I heard that HotTopic has a possible dupe for Lippmann Bad Romance I volunteered to pick up a gift card for dh. I'll let you know what I find when I return.

Today I have a fun Christmas mani made using Cina nails stickers from Sally's. I picked them up last year on clearance for 99 cents. I started by making stripes using Essence VIP Appeal (pink) and Check Me Out (green), then placed stickers and that's it! For the stripes I used Chloe's tape method. If you haven't heard of her, check her out, her blog is wonderful!

Just for fun I added Hello Kitty. Speaking of Hello Kitty, did any of you get the new Sephora polishes? I snatched a few and will post pics when they arrive!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Good morning Sunshines! Can you believe there's only 11 days until Christmas? I've been super busy shopping, decorating the house and attempting to study for finals. I say attempting because I haven't been very motivated. Since I only have 3 finals this year compared to the usual 6, I'm not as stressed out about it. But I have a feeling the closer they get, the more stressed out I'll be. I plan to study all week but we'll see how that goes :)

Today I wanted to share another gift wrap inspired mani. I'm not sure why I'm preoccupied with gift wrap this year. This is day 2, as you can probably tell from the tip wear. The blue is Sally Hansen Laser and stamped with China Glaze Emotion. I also did another Christmas mani, but I was rushing and it was a complete fail. I'm saving it to show off during my parade of nail failures.

I also wanted to announce the winner of the CSN & Holiday Giveaway. There was a total of 63 entries and the number selected by random.org was 36, which is Morgan of Pass the Polish Please!. I've emailed Morgan and she has 2 days to reply. Thanks so much to everyone that participated. I will be having another giveaway very soon!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Are you ready for another flakie? I know I am. I'm loving Elle's Spell from the Holiday Hustle Collection. I had to drive out of the way to pick her up but it was totally worth it. It's a gorgeous red flakie in a red base. Since I've been wearing a lot of Holiday mani's, I decided to switch things up a bit and layer it over purple. It really brought out the intensity of the flakes and sorta reminds me of OPI Merry Midnight, but much brighter.

Layered over Hard Candy Purple (sorry i don't have the name, it was on the package)

Isn't it beautiful! I purchased this polish from ULTA for $6. Woo hoo, what a steal!Thanks for stopping by :)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

I remember when I was a little girl in class and we would make red paper stockings with silver glitter. I tried to capture the same effect on my nails. To start I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Racin' Red (it's more red in real life) and Wet n' Wild White. I topped it off with Kiss silver glitter.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Hello dear Readers! I hope you're having a great weekend so far. Today I wanted to share more Holiday nails. I know black and white are not your traditional Holiday colors, but I think it's still pretty festive.

Carol of the Bells is one of my favorite Christmas songs and inspired this mani. For stamping I used China Glaze Hi-Tek & Color Club Where's the Soiree. I filled in the bells with China Glaze 5 Golden Rings, then topped it off with a couple of rhinestones and Milani Jewel Fx Gold glitter.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Wrapping gifts is one of my favorite things to do before Christmas! Today I have a gift-wrap inspired mani. To achieve this look I used China Glaze 2030 & Konad in Wine Red to stamp. Super easy, yet fun mani!